The Penn's Grove record., 1887-09-03
A MastOdOn Found.

a mastodon of ponderOus proportions
has been found at Pemberton. The
find is due to the enthusiasm of two
young students of geology, j. Coleman
Soltar, of PembertOn, and Emlen Nc
Cornell, of Philadelphia.
The giant elephant was found to be
entomed in the bed and bank Of Il small
stream, a tributary of the Rancocas.
The usually high water of the stream
had evidently only quite recently ex-
posed so much of the skeleton as was
a~ttainable, a portion of the upper jaw
and the head of one of the thigh bones.
Tue bones, which are mainly in a
good state of preservation, were firmly
embedded, and not until after having
partially diverted the course of the
stream could they be remove from the
enclosing matrix. The head was found
resting on ITS top surface, with a por-
ton of n of the molals of the upper
law exposed above the water. Both
tusks had been removed from their
sockets, and likewise one of the ante
rior molars; fortunately, however, the
former were recovered by the two
young men above mentioned, III the
bed of the stream, a short distance De-
low, and, although no longer perfect,
were still sufficient in themselves TO
indicate a ponderous dental armatufe.
BY closely feeling and grubbing along
tile bottom of the stream successfully
uncovered other parts Of the skeleton,
such as the leg and arm bones, ribs,
etc. and. doubtless, further excava-
lions will reveal the greater part, If
il not the whole, of the skeleton.
Through the generosity of the first
finders. Messrs. Saltar and Mcconnell,
the parts have been donated to the
| Academy of Natural Sciences, OF Phil
adelphia. whittier they are now be-
ing removed, and where they will be
shortly placed on exhibition. No ex-
act measurements of the bones have
as vet been made, but they indicate an
animal apparently equaling, if not sur
passing, a full grown elephant i'll size.
The species is probably Mostodon g.
gdnteas.
Tie remains of mastodons have been
foAhd at various times in the State OF
New Jersey, but it appears that none
either so well preserved or SO perfect
have been determined since lS45, when
as reported by Sir Charles Lyell, SIX
skeletons were exhumed from a
drained pond in Warren county, III
the northwestern part of the State.
Five of these Immediately crumbled,
bu the sixth one is 81 ated to have
been preserved entire (even to the re-
tentiOn of the food conta.n ned Ill the
stomachlJ The where abouts of this
skeleton, if it at all exists, l have been
unable to discover. A nearly perfect
skeleton is reported to have been exca-
waited in the line Of the Morris Canal
near SchOoley's Mountain, III 1871,
and a similar one, which subsequently
became the property of the New York
Lyceum of Natural History, three
years before, in a swamp at Popular,
Monmouth county. Fragments of
teeth and bone have been noted from
several other localities and counties,
and it appears that the animal was an
inhabitaDt of the greater portion of
the State. The latest important find
in this direction is the mastodon of
Freehold, Monmouth county, which
was discovered on June 18th, 1882.
and fully described by Mr.. Samuel
Lockwood, at the Montreal meeting of
the American Association for the Adj
vancement of Science, in August of
the same year. 1t is interesting to
note, as bearing upon the present dis
covery at Pemberton, that near the
same locality, some twenty years ago
a mastodon Uranium, unknown to be
such for several years, served as a step
ping stone in a swamp.